This invention relates generally to meat processing machinery and, more particularly, to a mechanical desinewing machine.
In meat products of the type adapted to be processed by the machine, sinew comprises connective tissue (e.g., tendons), gristle and residual bone. Sinew is tough and is hard or stringy and must be removed from meat such as deboned beef shanks and deboned turkey drumsticks if such meat is to be sold in ground form.
Paoli U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,794 discloses a desinewing machine which, with certain products, acceptably removes the sinew. In that machine, however, the sinew is stripped from the meat by means of helical cutting elements on a rotor interdigitating with a set of teeth on a breaker bar or pressure bar. Edible meat which remains after stripping of the sinew is forced through constricted helical slots in the rotor. While such a machine functions admirably to strip the sinew, the edible meat which is produced has a very fine texture and is somewhat in the form of an emulsion. The appearance of the meat tends to lower customer appeal.